Philly figures into ongoing resistance to municipalities paying for state police

HARRISBURG, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Gov. Tom Wolf has come up with a new wrinkle in his latest proposal to have municipalities that rely on state police to share in the cost. But some GOP lawmakers still say the proposal is unfair, and one reason they cite is Philadelphia.

In his latest budget proposal, Gov. Wolf has created a sliding scale for what municipalities that rely solely on state police coverage would pay per capita.

“I think that makes it a little more reasonable within the legislature, and we’re hopeful that that change leads to more support," Abbott said.

But Mike Straub, spokesman for the House majority leader, says that doesn’t address the concern some members of the Republican caucus have that state police are still pretty busy in places that have their own police forces.

“Philadelphia leads in the number of calls involving state police. So is it fair to ask smaller municipalities to cover the cost of state police, if they’re doing a huge amount of work in areas that already have their own police?” Straub said.

This is the third year the governor has included a fee for state police coverage in his budget proposal.